T W O

Their feet were slipping off the rocks as they struggled, hearts pounding, fear making their steps heavy as the chilled creek water splashed up into their faces and eyes making it difficult to see where they were going.

Lily and Beverly knew that if they got up the shoulder and into the road, they would be safe- at least for a brief period of time. Lily was huffing heavily for gasps of air and Beverly's eyes stayed focus, her determination to get them the hell away from Bowers and his pack never falling short.

The boys weren't far behind, hooting and hollering like a bunch of crazed delinquents.

Stopping for a second, Lily grimaced as her lungs burned deep inside of her, trying desperately to catch her breath. Her legs felt as if they had become jello encased in skin. Beverly also stopped a few feet ahead when she noticed Lily had come to a halt.

"Come on, they are going to catch up!" Beverly pleaded extending her hand out to her.

Lily straightened her posture, gave her a nod and then reached out and grabbed Beverly's hand, the girls locking fingers and instantly taking back off into the tree flooded scenery.

The sound of a flame igniting and laughter echoed through the air. Lily knew it was Patrick Hockstetter spraying hairspray over top of a lighter for the simple fact that he did it daily at Derry High.

The girls got to the edge of the shoulder and had made it a few feet up just as the boys caught up. Belch grabbed Beverly's backpack and yanked her backwards, causing her to scream and fall onto the rocks beneath them and Henry did the same to Lily.

Landing beside Beverley, she let out a pained whimper and turned her head to look at the ginger haired girl. There was fear in her eyes. Lily pushed herself up so that she was on her hands and knees but instantly regretted it as a hard-toed sneaker connected into her ribs. She cried out and fell forward, the skin on her palms skidding across the damp rocks, causing the skin to break and bleed. Her brand new light blue dress that she had saved up for from collecting random change and dollar bills that accumulated in her couch was drenched in the creek water. Her ribs instantly felt as if someone had taken them and broke them in half. It was like a raging hot fire had exploded in her torso.

Beverly had pushed herself up so that her elbows supported her. She looked over at the girl helplessly who had begun to sputter and whine in pain.

"Leave her alone, Belch!"

A line of flames blew at her face viciously and the tall lanky boy that stood behind it smirked when Bev jumped. Belch Huggins, who had a chunkier build and a baseball cap chuckled, standing inches away from the boy and Lily as well. "You gonna make me, whore?"

Henry approached Lily, grabbing her by the forearm and flipping her over so that she was laying with rocks digging into her back. "Not so tough now, hm?" he was inches away from her face.

Without warning, Beverly shoved her foot upward with all of her might and kicked Patrick hard in the groin as he approached her. He let out a scream of pain and fell down to his knees, his large skinny hands instantly cupping his damaged goods. Belch rushed to his aid and Henry looked over at them surprised.

Lily took that as her cue. She scurried backwards, ignoring the burning pain that shot through her bloodied hands and got to her feet. She ran as fast as she could into the shrubs and away from the shoulder, and Beverly, not looking back.

Henry's head whipped back toward her and his eyes narrowed. He couldn't help but scowl. For once though, he was actually concerned about someone other then himself. Patrick had crawled to the edge of the creek and began to vomit. She couldn't run for forever so catching her eventually was inevitable.

"Get him out of here, Belch." He demanded, pointing up the shoulder.

Without hesitating, Belch nodded and lifted his friend to his feet and within moments, they were both gone out of sight, Patrick still bent over, gagging and gasping in pain. This left Henry and Beverly alone, who had managed to also get to her shaky feet.

"Some friend you got, huh?" Henry chuckled out, holding his hands out and doing a small turn. "Nowhere to be found."

Beverly said nothing and glared at him, doing her damnedest to make it seem like the entire chase and now stand off weren't bothering her at all. Her elbow was scraped up and so was the side of her leg, mostly on her left side and her dress had torn at the side- also soaking wet.

"I'm about to pleasure you more than your Daddy ever could," Henry's voice was low and cruel and his eyes were dark. "And once I'm done, you'll be begging me for more."

Beverly let out a shriek once Henry grabbed a hold of her arm and then jumped backwards when a loud thump echoed throughout the trees.

Henry stared at her for a moment and then fell to the ground harshly, his eyes rolling into the back of his head, water seemingly exploding around him.

Standing behind him was Lily. She was holding a large broken tree branch and her green eyes were wide. She had never done something so drastic before in her entire life. Henry deserved it of course but that didn't stop the fear that suddenly seeped through her veins like a bad infection. She knew they wouldn't see the last of him or his cronies but at least for then, she and Beverly were safe.

"You came back." Beverly breathed out, staring down at Henry.

"Of course I did. I'm sure you would have done the same thing." Lily gave her a weak smile. "Now let's get out of here before he wakes up or his friends come back."

"Agreed." Beverly took a slow step over Henry's unconscious body and both girls took off running, not caring how long it took them to get back into the town, just as long as they did.

It was a quarter past five when Lily and Beverly made it to Lily's house. Lily's mother had been absent for the last three days and her little sister was over at her best friend's house for the week. Molly Jenkins was a sweet little girl and Lily was glad Tessa had her, and her family.

Lily pushed the front door open and led Beverly into the bathroom, pulling out unused gauze, peroxide and medical tape from behind the mirror that was above the bathroom sink .

"Here, sit down there," Lily pointed to the edge of the bathtub.

Beverly looked around. The bathroom was your typical one, with a white bath tub, that had a tiled backsplash, a toilet that sat a few feet away from it and a white porcelain sink that sat beside that with the mirror above it. The shower curtain was tattered but it was purple and there was a single painting of a large lighthouse that sat upon a calm beach that hung above the toilet. There was also a tall plastic stand that had a few accessible drawers that sat near the corner by the bathtub and it appeared full of different things.

Beverly smiled at her new friend as she seemed focus on tending to her scrapes. "Do you always have this stuff in your house?"

Lily looked up at her as she applied the peroxide to Beverly's leg injury and then covered it was gauze. She gave her a small smile back. "When you have the kind of mom I do, it becomes a necessity. All the time."

"I don't have a mom," the ginger girl said quietly.

Lily applied pressure and taped the gauze to her, stopping when Beverly spoke. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be."

The girls exchanged another smile and within a few minutes, both of their scrapes were cleaned and covered. Lily unfortunately had one down the side of her jaw that crept up her cheek so it couldn't be covered but she wore it proudly; a war wound for the first war she had won.

The girls talked and giggled for a while, each enjoying each other's company for neither of them had ever truly had a friend before fate's decision to throw them together.

"I better be going. My dad will throw a fit if I'm not back before Derry's stupid curfew," Beverly suddenly said noticing the time. The worry that crept into her face seemed like it belonged to other reasons besides being late for a curfew. Lily couldn't identify what exactly it was though.

Lily nodded and both girls began to walk the four and a half blocks it took for Beverly to reach the apartment building she resided in.

There was a slight chill to the air and the sky had begun to darken, blanketing certain parts with bright stars. It was very eerie due to the fact that everyone was scared and inside before the 7pm town curfew even took effect. Not that they could be blamed however, after little Georgie Denbrough went missing, and multiple children after him, the fear and panic struck in anyone's heart was very much real and very understandable.

The girls reached the bottom of the fire escape that crept up the apartment building and Beverly looked around, frowning slightly.

"You shouldn't walk back alone."

"I'm not worried about the curfew, it's okay." Lily said reassuringly.

"It's not the curfew I worry about. It's Bowers and his boyfriends."

Lily giggled. "Don't worry, Bev. I'll be fine. I'll just beat him with another stick if I have to." She joked. "Maybe we can hang out tomorrow? If you're not busy I mean."

Beverly's eyes lit up. "Yeah! I mean, I'm never busy," she chuckled. "I'll come by at some point tomorrow when I can."

Lily nodded. "Sounds good to me."

The girls waved goodbye and within a moment, Lily was back on her way home.

Lily walked slowly, playing a silent game with herself. Every time she found a stone, she would kick it and see if she could kick it even further the next time. She had always wanted to play soccer but never had the funds, or the bravery to actually do it. It sucked.

Once Lily turned into Turner street, which was her street, she stopped suddenly, staring down the empty darkened street. Near her house stood a little girl, that looked an awful lot like her little sister- almost identical for that matter.

"Tessa?" Lily called out, she began to walk again, purposely picking up her pace.

The little girl stayed still, with her back to her. Her long dark hair looked tangled and the dress she was wearing looked way too big.

"Tessa!" Lily called again, this time a little louder and more concerned.

The girl stayed unmoving.

Finally after a short jog, Lily reached the small girl. She was within arms reach and Lily couldn't understand why even after shouting her name and now being right behind her, that she wasn't answering her. She feared the worse for her little sister. What if something was wrong? What if she was in shock because of seeing something horrible? What the hell happened? What the hell was wrong with her?

Lily placed a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder and slowly stared to turn her toward herself. "Tessa, why-"

Once the girl spun around, Lily let out a shrill shriek of terror and stumbled backwards, tripping over her own two feet and falling backwards onto the road.

The girl's face was twisted and turned sideways, where her eyes used to be, were nothing but black, bloody holes that began to drip maggots. Her head began to twitch violently and her mouth opened wide- wider than humanly possible.

Lily's heart was racing so fast she felt as if her values were going to burst. She shook her head, hot tears brimming in her eyes and she scurried backwards, much like she did when she was given the chance to get away from Bowers.

The girl then suddenly vomited a sticky black substance at her. It missed Lily's shoes by a few centimetres. Lily began to cry and got to her feet, taking a few steps backwards, gasping out when she saw the girl's arms stuck with what seemed like a million needles.

"T-T-Tess.." she couldn't even get the words out.

The girl's head twisted to the side, the bones in her neck crunching at the motion, and a bunch of red balloons floated behind her suddenly, filling the dark sky with their red essence. And then she let out a sickening sound and ran forward at Lily, rotting arms stretched out, head still to the side.

With a terrified scream, and tears pouring from her face, Lily turned around and took off running.

She didn't know where she was going to go but anywhere away from whatever the hell that thing was, was better. Even if it meant running straight into something else.